Sparky Juice
by Stargatecrazy
Summary: A drink that seems too good to be true is found. Its undiscovered effects spread through Atlantis and while Teyla and Ronon have to find out what's happening, Elizabeth and John struggle to withhold their feelings from each other. FULL SUMMARY INSIDE
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Sparky Juice  
**Summary: **I think this has been done before but this is my version. A drink that seems too good to be true is found. Its undiscovered effects spread through Atlantis and while the unaffected Teyla and Ronon have to find out what is going on, Elizabeth and John struggle to withhold their feelings from each other. When it's all over, is John and Elizabeth's friendship damaged beyond repair, or will they be able to break past their fears and forward their relationship?  
**Pairings:** Sparky (Duh title!) And slight, kinda implied, not really there Teyla/Ronon.  
**Disclaimer**: If I owned Atlantis do you really think I'd be writing fan fiction instead of making it into an episode?! A hopelessly romantic crazy fan girl can hope though can't she?

**Author's** **Note**: This came from my fave Sparky forum (look at my profile page if you want to see how to get to it) where BBQmice told us about a new drink in Brazil that was called 'Sparky Juice'. We thought it would be perfect for a fic where people drink it and……well read to find out.  
Enjoy! Oh and this fic does get better with each chapter. I wrote the first few chapters a while back and even though I've edited parts of them, it's still not up to my current standard, so the later chapters are better!

**Author's** **Note** **2**: You could skip this chapter if you want. All it is, is complete boredom telling you were they got the drink from and yadda, yadda. It would make a little bit more sense to read it but you don't have to.

--

**Sparky Juice  
****By Stargatecrazy**

**Chapter One**

They stepped out of the shimmering wormhole on to M3X-492. It was planet full of green and yellow trees. Each tree had funny looking, red fruits on them which looked like a cross between a banana and a pineapple.

"Does every planet _have_ to have trees? It get's a bit boring after a while. Couldn't we, _for once_, find a planet with out them! Maybe where there's a giant indoor complex full of hot, blond, female scientists?"

Everyone except Rodney sighed. They hadn't been on the planet for two minutes and he was already complaining.

"You know, I think you'd complain if there _weren't_ any trees."

"Yeah, but you wouldn't complain if there was a giant indoor complex full of hot, blond, female scientists, would you?" Rodney retorted smugly.

John didn't answer verbally; just tilted his head to one side and shrugged.

Whatever he was going to say was cut short by a shout from behind one of the trees. John, Teyla and Ronon raised their weapons defensively at the cluster of bushes where they'd heard the noise. From behind one of the nearest fruit trees stepped a man and a small boy dressed in strange, bright coloured clothing.

"Fellow travellers, welcome to our planet. We welcome you to our village. Come and we will discuss your reason for being here" said the man.

Looking at each other, confused, they decided to follow. The man headed into the forest gesturing the team to follow him. After a while trekking through the trees they entered a clearing. The man led them further into the clearing where small wooden huts were set up in a circle. A fire was burning in the centre and everyone was laughing and drinking happily from small metal cups.

"Here is my village, friends" the peculiar man exclaimed.

He went up to the nearest person, a woman, and whispered something to her. She walked off into one of the huts and came back a couple of minutes later with four metal cups, similar to the ones everyone else was drinking from. She handed one to each of Sheppard's team.

"Excuse me for being rude but who are you and why the hell are you welcoming strangers into your village?" Rodney asked.

John shook his head and resisted the strong urge to hit McKay. Teyla walked up to the man and apologised for Rodney's behaviour. She led him away to talk to him and when came back to the group a few minutes later she told them what she had learned.

"The man's name is Horon and he is the leader of these people. They call themselves the Telairens. I asked him why he has been so welcoming to us with the dangers of the galaxy ever present and he did not understand what I meant. He has never met any one from another planet." Teyla paused to breathe then carried on, "They know what the Stargate does but have no need for it and nobody has ever come through. I told him of the Wraith but he did not believe of such creatures!"

"He didn't?" Ronon spoke up for the first time since exiting the Stargate.

"The Wraith have never been here?" John asked.

"No. As I said he did not believe of such terrible beasts. He said that the trees protect them from the skies and no one ventures this far into the forest for fear that they will get lost, so they have never been discovered."

"That is possible," Rodney pondered over it. "I don't think the Wraith have Life Sign Detectors, like we do, so they couldn't know with out entering the forest and as horrible as they are they're not stupid."

"This seems like the perfect Alpha site if these kind folks agree!" John beamed.

Horon had come back over to them with a large jug full of yellowy blue liquid in his hands. He poured some of the liquid into each of their metal cups. The drink was a strange colour but it still looked inviting.

"There are records of these sorts of beasts from many, many years ago when our great ancestors first settled here but for some reason the beasts left and never came back. The records don't say why. We do not know anything about them. The records only name them as the takers of life." Horon explained, leaving them when an old woman called his name.

Rodney took one look at the drink and started shouting. Teyla and Ronon exchanged looks and sighed once again.

"What is this? Has this got citrus in it? I'm highly allergic to citrus and it would kill me! How do they know I'm allergic to it? Are they trying to kill me?" Rodney yelled, over reacting slightly.

John shook his head for the second time that day and this time_ did_ smack Rodney. McKay glared at him whilst rubbing the back of his head. John saw Ronon cautiously sniff the weird liquid and went to ask Horon what it was but was interrupted by the small boy from earlier.

"I am Jerin. This juice is the juice from the fruit of the Sparkifugniouskan tree. It makes you less ill and helps keep you awake at night if there are still chores to be done." Jerin seemed happy that he was able to tell the strangers what it was.

"Sparkifikyun what?" Rodney asked.

"The Sparkifugniouskan tree!" The boy smiled.

"I say we name it the Sparkyfug juice!" Rodney said smugly.

"What did I say about you naming things?! I say we call it……Sparky Juice!" Now John was the one looking smug.

"Anyway," Rodney glared. "What Jijin…"

"Jerin!" The boy interrupted.

"What ever…..what I'm guessing Jerin means is that this drink could increase the strength of our immune systems and have similar properties of caffeine. Does any one get addicted to this stuff?"

Jerin frowned at the word addicted.

"Want more of the stuff! Can't get enough of the stuff! Drinks too much of the stuff!" Rodney was getting impatient and he was getting hungry.

Jerin shook his head and smiled again. Teyla thanked him and the four of them walked over to Horon. They told him they were going back to Atlantis and that some more people, dressed the same would come to discuss trade agreements for more of their juice.

With that Sheppard's team headed back to the Gate with the samples from their cups in one of Rodney's many water canteens.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's** **Note**: There's a bit of science stuff in this chapter and it's absolute rubbish. At least I think it is. There's no way that a drink could do the extra bit I've twisted into the plot, so just put up with it and enjoy! It's Science Fiction fan fiction!

**Chapter Two**

"Welcome back. Did you find anything of interest?" Elizabeth asked as she walked down the stairs to meet them.

"Well….." John started to say.

"Yes, yes. We found a drink that could be a better version of coffee!!" Rodney interrupted.

Ronon and Teyla handed their weapons to some marines and headed off to the gym while Rodney babbled on. They didn't have to stick around and listen to what they already knew. John waved them off shouting the time of the briefing after them.

"Coffee?" Elizabeth repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah it's a fruit juice with caffeine properties. Sheppard wouldn't let me name it! Kill joy." Rodney muttered under his breath.

Elizabeth smiled at John and he just shrugged.

"You know how bad he is at naming things."

Rodney huffed and walked off to his lab to analyse the juice, calling Carson and Radek on the radio as he left.

"Briefing at 1600 hours, McKay!" John said as Rodney walked off.

He waved his hand above his head in recognition. Elizabeth headed up to her office and John followed her. She entered and sat down on her chair while John sat on the edge of the desk.

"So what _did_ you end up calling it, John?"

"Sparky Juice!" He told her proudly.

"I swear you're a child some times." Elizabeth smirked at him.

John feigned hurt. He twisted off the desk and leaned forwards so his head was close to Elizabeth's. He smiled.

"But you'd miss me if I was gone."

He was so close. She could feel herself turning red so she swallowed and tried to regain her composure.

"Yes, John." She answered simply.

John smiled triumphantly and pushed himself up off the desk. He started to leave then turned around and said:

"Gonna go bug, McKay. See you later!"

"Don't annoy him too much John." Elizabeth called after him as he left.

--

When John entered Rodney's lab he saw a crowd of scientists including Beckett, McKay and Zelenka. They were on various computers and laptops, babbling away. The noise was just over the bearable level.

"What's going on here? It looks like feeding time at the zoo for scientists."

"Very funny Sheppard but we've discovered something amazing! You know Horon said there were records saying that the Wraith left their planet for no apparent reason well, I," Beckett elbowed him, "we, found out why!"

John walked over to them and sat on the only free chair. He looked up at the lap top that was open in front of them. It had loads of weird signs and symbols on it.

"Um…..what does it mean?"

"Call yourself MENSA…We ran a few tests on the Sparky Juice, as you've decided to call it, and as well as proving that Jijun, Jirju, Jerin or whatever his name is, was correct about the caffeine and immune system booster we also found that drinking it keeps you immune to Wraith feeding on you." Rodney explained before smiling and saying, "Oh and the drink doesn't contain citrus."

John rolled his eyes and decided to ignore the last comment. "How does it make you immune?"

"We were going to go and tell Elizabeth but you came in and interrupted us. Would you like to join us?" Rodney and Carson got up and left the lab leaving the other scientists behind.

John followed as they entered Elizabeth's office and Rodney started to talk at full speed. Fortunately, Elizabeth had learnt to understand Rodney's speed during the years she'd known him. Rodney and Carson filled Elizabeth in on what they'd already told John.

"How?" She asked.

"As you know we still don't know enough about the Wraith feeding process to fully understand, but we do know that they use their hands. The drink forms some sort of barrier against the grips or 'teeth' for want of a better word on the Wraith's hand which stops them from being able to feed. The drink doesn't make you invulnerable though. Any thing else can still kill you." Carson told them.

"We should start giving this to people straight away as long as there aren't any negative effects. Start distributing it as soon as the Henmon's team get back with more of it." Elizabeth ordered.

"The people on M3X-492 seemed fine enough and all the tests we did were fine. We'll start getting ready to give it to people!" Rodney hurried out of Elizabeth's office with Carson following.

She turned to John and smiled. He returned the smile and sat down on the edge of her desk like he usually did.

"You've really found something that could help us win this war against the Wraith, John."

"I know" he smirked. "If we could distribute this to the whole galaxy, the Wraith would have nothing left to feed on."

"We might actually have a chance of winning."

"We've always had a chance….."


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's** **Note**: Okay, I know the last few chapters were pretty boring but there'll definitely be a lot more Sparky in this chapter. The other two chapters were just technical stuff to build up the major story line. Enjoy…

**Chapter Three**

Something strange was starting to happen on Atlantis and Teyla was confused. It had begun soon after everyone had started drinking the Sparky Juice. Ronon and herself didn't seem to be effected though, and Carson had said it might have to do with the fact that they were from the Pegasus Galaxy. He told them they had a slight difference in body chemistry compared to that of the rest of the expedition. To be honest, the whole explanation had gone in one ear and out the other; she was spending too much time with Ronon. She sighed.

She was on her way to see Ronon now. They were going to talk to Colonel Sheppard and Dr Weir about what was going on.

On her way to Ronon's she passed Major Lorne and one of the new nurses partaking in something that would not normally be considered appropriate for the hallways. Teyla shook her head and carried on walking. That hadn't been the weirdest thing she'd seen this week.

Just as she got to Ronon's room McKay shouted to her. He had a large bruise surrounding his eye, extending down to spread across his cheek.

"Teyla, hey! I just wanted to say…do you know that you're really hot. I mean, I know I usually go for blonds but….yeah. I was wondering…..if there's any chance of an 'us'. Cause you are seriously hot!"

Teyla was very taken aback. Rodney was hitting on her, an extremely odd Earth phrase, especially considering that no physical violence was involved. And hadn't McKay ever heard of 'personal space'?

"Doctor McKay is some thing wrong. People have been acting very weird lately." Teyla asked as she backed up against the door to Ronon's quarters.

"Wrong? No nothing is wrong. I'm just telling you how I think you're so beautiful! And has anyone told you about your eyes?"

Thankfully Teyla was saved by Ronon. He opened the door and she fell back into him.

"What's going on?" He asked as he gently pushed Teyla up right again.

Rodney ran, not wanting to face Ronon after he'd been flirting with Teyla. Teyla shrugged and told Ronon it was the same weird thing that had been happening for the past few days.

When they reached the control room they noticed that Doctor Weir wasn't in her office. They saw two figures out on the balcony and, after smiling knowingly at each other, decided to wait for them to come out.

--

"John some thing odd has been happening this week. Haven't you noticed it?"

"You mean have I noticed that most of Atlantis' population is suddenly a lot more comfortable which each other? Then yes I have noticed. Normally I wouldn't care so much, but when it spills out into the hallways…" He trailed off with a wave of his hand.

Elizabeth suddenly noticed how close together she and John were standing. In her mind she knew it was inappropriate, but her body refused to move away. She sighed and turned around, resting her hands on the balcony railing.

"Not just that. Zelenka punched Rodney yesterday for no apparent reason. And the day before some marines went on a joy ride in the Jumpers. And today……today some of the scientists blew up a lab!" She sighed.

"That's nothing new." John laughed.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "It was on purpose, John!"

He laughed again and turned to look at Elizabeth. She in turn, looked up at him when she heard his sharp intake of breath.

"Wow……"

Both of them knew that John wasn't talking about the strange behaviour of the expedition members. They lapsed into silence. John suddenly realised that he had his hand outstretched, about to brush one of Elizabeth's curls behind her ear. He jerked his hand back and Elizabeth's eyes went to his.

Elizabeth's body seemed to lean closer to John's and eyes flicked down to her lips. Just before he closed the distance between them, he caught himself and winced.

He shook himself and rapidly made a pathetic, stuttering excuse to leave. John half ran off the balcony and when he felt he was a safe distance away from his boss, he leant against the wall and breathed deeply.

John couldn't believe how close he'd come to ruining their friendship. He quickly chastised himself and threaded a hand through his hair.

He knew he cared about Elizabeth, maybe even more than that if he was completely honest, but there were so many reasons why he shouldn't be acting like this. One being that she might not feel the same way and it would practically destroy what they already had. He wouldn't risk their friendship for something she might not want. For now he was happy.

John sighed. He supposed he should stop sulking and at least go for something to eat in the mess hall, especially since he wasn't likely to run into Elizabeth. "Since she hardly ever eats." He muttered.

--

**There are 9 chapters to this fic and they're all already written. If I get enough reviews for these first three chapters, I'll update with the next three and the same again. So if you like this fic, or at least are interested in it, then please review (I hope this blackmail works!) there is even better Sparky to come!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thankyou everyone for reviewing, here are the next three chapters! **

**Chapter Four**

It had been a couple of hours since John had excused himself from the balcony. Elizabeth had left it shortly afterwards. Teyla and Ronon had been waiting to speak to her. They had also notice the strange behaviour and she'd told them to keep an eye on it. She had then retired to her office. That was where she was now, lost in her thoughts.

The urge to grab him and kiss him was getting stronger, but at least she'd managed to resist it so far; if she ignored that almost mishap on the balcony. Thankfully John had kept his distance from her for a while so she hadn't had the chance.

It sounded silly wanting to kiss the man you work closest with, not to mention your Military Commander, which is why the rational part of her brain had always reminded her of the consequences. Recently, the rational part of her brain had taken a vacation and Elizabeth had found that she actually had to physically stop herself.

She was also thinking about why everyone was acting like they were teenagers again; not thinking about those around them or the consequences of their actions. She'd even seen one of the scientists spell out 'Be Mine' in the air to Doctor Heightmeyer, by using an explosion from a test tube.

This was turning out to be the weirdest experience she'd ever heard of and that was including all the SGC missions she'd read about in the reports. She supposed she couldn't rely on those though, since she was in another galaxy. Elizabeth was brought out of her reverie by music. At first she thought it was her radio malfunctioning, but after taking the ear piece out to look at it, she realised it wasn't the cause.

"What the hell?" She exited her office and walked over to the technicians on duty, who weren't actually doing what they were meant to be doing.

"Do you like it Doctor Weir?" Came the all too familiar drone of Kavanaugh.

"Doctor Kavanaugh." Elizabeth used the pleasant smile she reserved for the most unpleasant of people. "Why is there music blaring out of the city wide communications system?"

"It was Lorne's idea. Lovely isn't it?" He replied sarcastically.

Elizabeth sighed and turned to face him properly. Her confrontations with Kavanaugh were never pleasant and she doubted this time was going to be different.

"What do you want Doctor?"

Kavanaugh didn't answer and instead stepped closer to Elizabeth. He grabbed her forcefully by the arms and brought his mouth down to meet hers. Elizabeth tried to push Kavanaugh away as she tried to ignore the gag reflexes of her body but he was stronger than she thought he'd be. She'd been right. This confrontation wasn't pleasant.

Fortunately for her John had just been coming to see her. As soon as he saw what was happening he ran up the last couple of steps and yanked Kavanaugh off her. Again Elizabeth tried to stop herself from gagging but this time she couldn't stop it completely and ended up in a coughing fit.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" John shouted still holding the struggling man.

Suddenly feeling slightly out of character, John couldn't help himself. All he could see was anger towards Kavanaugh. Before he knew what he was doing there was a sickening crack and Kavanaugh was on the floor with a broken nose; his blood covering John's fist.

Elizabeth gasped, previously too busy coughing to even realise what John was doing, let alone trying to stop him. She very much disliked Kavanaugh, could even go as far as saying she hated him, especially after that experience, but there was no reason for John to act like that.

"John? What were you thinking?!"

"The bastard kissed you! Do you think I was gonna let him get away with something like that?!" John turned to her, flexing his blood covered hand.

The anger was still growing. It took everything John had to refrain himself from hitting the guy more.

Elizabeth signalled to one of the marines, who looked at Kavanaugh with disgust, obviously siding with John on the matter. He picked the Doctor up and took him off to the infirmary at Elizabeth's request.

Then she turned to John. She didn't speak but her raised eyebrow told John how much trouble he was in. Strange how one such action could portray a different array of emotions, from amusement to anger.

"Um, sorry?" John ventured.

She remained silent, obviously waiting for John to explain himself. Whilst trying to think up an excuse that would both be found believable by Elizabeth and wouldn't embarrass him, John was unconsciously wiping the blood off his hand with the bottom of his shirt.

Elizabeth's eyes widened slightly as her gaze shifted to John's hand. "God, John, you're bleeding."

"No, it's just…" He faded out as he actually looked at his fist, fresh new blood bubbling to the surface.

"Wow, I didn't think I'd hit him that hard." He joked, not provoking a laugh from Elizabeth.

Without realising what she was doing, Elizabeth had taken John's hand in both of hers and was gently using his already red soaked shirt to stop the bleeding. Or at least to attempt to.

"John, this is really bad. I think you've split the skin." The softness in her voice threw John and Elizabeth blushed.

"You should probably get yourself to the…"

Their eyes had locked and just like on the balcony, they slowly leant towards each other, only to jerk away again when a technician fell off the chair he'd been balancing on behind them. Coughing in embarrassment, John carefully took his hand from Elizabeth's grasp and smirked, making some witty comment that Elizabeth didn't really take in, before heading off to see Carson.

**And the 'Be Mine' reference earlier on in the chapter was BBQmice's idea!! Sorry for the Kavanaugh kissing Elizabeth stuff. I was seriously gagging while writing it (and then I had to rewrite it because it was terrible) but I thought it would be great stuff for John to get angry over! Worked didn't it!? lol! And then we got some fluff!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

It had now been over a week and things were beginning to get worse. Teyla and Ronon were now the only two members of the expedition who had complete control over what they did. Colonel Sheppard and Doctor Weir were holding out as best they could, but even they weren't in full control of their actions, most noticeably when they were around each other. Nearly all of the scientists had lost it in the first few days and most of the military a few days later.

And the worst thing? Teyla and Ronon couldn't really do anything about it. They could stop people from seriously injuring themselves or from injuring others, but not much else. They weren't scientists and therefore couldn't figure something out even if they knew what was wrong.

Teyla had suggested calling Stargate Command for help, but before they could implement the idea, one of the scientists had spilt milkshake over the DHD controls, rendering the device completely inoperative.  
"So much for Ancient technology." Ronon had grunted in irritation.

"We've got to think back." Teyla reasoned, while helping Ronon to restrain Rodney, who was currently trying to ingest as many citrus foods as he could find.

"Back? To when?" He grunted, wishing Teyla would just let him stun everyone, most particularly the scientist currently struggling in his grasp.

"To when all this first started to happen. When did you first see signs of abnormal behaviour among the expedition?" She asked, finally managing to drag Rodney away from the fruit bowl he was now trying to reach.

"When I first got here." Ronon joked, making Teyla frown. "I'm being serious. You've gotta admit they're strange."

Rodney suddenly let out a triumphant yell as his hands closed around a lemon. Ronon smacked it out of his hands and then gestured to Teyla.

"See what I mean? I say we let him eat the lemon."

She smiled at him, after rolling her eyes at the comment, before getting back on track. "Yes, Ronon. But when did they first start acting weird, out of the usual."

He shrugged and only after succeeding in removing Rodney from the Mess Hall and locking him in one of the abandoned rooms nearby, did he speak.

"Wasn't it sometime after we got back from that Wraith free planet? M3X-something?"

They were now walking through the hallways in an attempt to make it to the control room.

"I think you're right. It…" She was cut off as one of the marines came charging down the corridor, firing a Wraith stunner at one of the pilots behind him.

Ronon managed to drag Teyla out of harms way, but Atlantis was getting more dangerous everyday.

"This, insanity, seems to be increasing." Teyla voiced her opinion and Ronon agreed.

Both of them had managed to lock away many of the dangerous weapons in the armoury, thankfully including the Jumpers in the Jumper bay, by taking out some of the control crystals from the door, just as they'd seen Rodney do before. Unfortunately, a lot of the scientist could bypass this, even in their childlike state and many soldiers still had the stunners and P-90's that they'd had on them before the madness had started.

Teyla and Ronon had tried their hardest to stop members of the expedition from using their guns, and in the end, she had let Ronon stun a few of them with his gun.

--

There were two thoughts currently running through John Sheppard's head. One of them was coming from the sensible part of his brain, telling him how wrong this was. The other, the one that he doubted was coming from his brain at all, was telling him how right this was.

He'd gone to talk to Elizabeth, to discuss some form of action they should be taking to resolve what was happening in Atlantis. But unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you looked at the situation, that hadn't exactly happened.

He didn't know how it had happened but John had suddenly realised that his lips were against Elizabeth's. In shock he'd pulled back and looked into her eyes before she roughly grabbed his face and pulled his mouth back down to hers.

It was hot but it was wrong. He shouldn't be doing it at all but for some reason even that sensible part of his brain seemed to be screaming out for more. Silently John thanked it sarcastically for abandoning him when he needed it most. Not that he didn't want to kiss Elizabeth but…maybe he should stop thinking now…

Her lips pushed up violently against and his brain gave out on him, a deep moan erupting from his throat. John pushed back just as forcefully and had just started to inch his hand under Elizabeth's shirt to explore the smooth skin underneath when they were forced apart by a couple of marines who had come bursting into Elizabeth's office. From the looks of it they were playing a somewhat violent game of tag. Elizabeth was knocked back against her desk and John fell to the floor.

The moment it had taken for John to recover had given Elizabeth enough time to look at him in almost horror, stutter a few unintelligible words, swallow forcefully and rush out of the room. John winced and walked out of her office and into the control room; not even attempting to follow her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

When Teyla and Ronon finally reached the control room they found John sitting in one of the chairs, seemingly staring into space.

"John? Are you alright?" Teyla walked up to him and the Colonel jumped slightly.

"Er, yeah. Fine, I'm fine. But it's getting harder."

Teyla nodded in understanding. John was one of the people who would find it the most discomforting not being able to control his actions. Elizabeth was another one of those people.

"Where's Weir?" Ronon asked, his eyes continuously scanning the room for members of the expedition who should be considered dangerous in their current condition.

"I don't really know. I think she's avoiding me…things have been getting a little too…close, if you understand." John sighed somewhat sadly. "She doesn't like this anymore than I do. In fact I think it's even worse for her. You know how she is."

Teyla nodded in understanding. Sitting down in a chair next to John she explained what she and Ronon had discussed earlier.

"John, think back to when all of this started to happen."

"I don't think I can. This past week all seems a bit fuzzy." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Ronon and I think we know what's been causing this." Teyla continued. "It began a while after we returned from M3X-492."

"Wait, which one is that?" John interrupted and Teyla realised from the look on his face that John was finding it hard to concentrate.

"The last planet we went to." Ronon rumbled.

John nodded slowly and Teyla carried on speaking.

"I think it's the juice, John. It seems to be affecting everyone, making them less likely to think of the consequences."

"Why aren't you and Ronon…?"

"Carson told us that Ronon and I have different body chemistry to you." She paused. "I do not believe we can stop people from drinking it though. We managed to procure a large amount from M3X-492 and it will last for at least three more months."

John rubbed his fists into his eyes. "This can't go on. If it keeps getting worse…"

Teyla nodded and so did Ronon. Teyla remained quiet, trying to think of a possible solution and Ronon, now sitting on the edge of one of the consoles, surprisingly also looked deep in thought. John had fazed out and was once again staring at some random spot on the wall.

--

Elizabeth breathed out slowly and closed her eyes. She'd left John in her office and quickly made it to one of the outer balconies and was now leaning against the wall, staring out at the ocean. The sea breeze washed over her and she let her shoulders relax slightly.

To be honest, she actually had no idea why she was resisting John so much. It could have to do with the fact that she had no idea why she was acting the way she was, as if all rational thought had been taken from her, but she doubted it.

It was more likely that she was afraid to be hurt, or afraid that the IOA could reassign her or John if they ended up in a relationship. And she'd rather have John as 'just a friend' than not have him at all. It could even just be her own damn stubbornness and the fact that she couldn't help but make her life harder and more difficult.

If John died on a mission through the 'Gate that _she_ sent him on…?

Sighing again, Elizabeth slid down the wall and sat on the floor. She rested her elbows on her now bent knees and forced the heels of her hands into her eyes.

That was probably her main reason. It could be taken two ways. If she _wasn't_ in a relationship with John and he died, she'd be left wondering what it would have been like to be with him. If she _was_ in a relationship with John and he died, she'd be left knowing what she was missing.

There were an awful lot of 'ifs' but either way she was promised heartbreak. John couldn't stay lucky forever. Eventually, with his job…

Elizabeth didn't even want to think about it. Flashes of their 'meeting' in her office kept flashing in her mind. There was one thing she was sure of; one thing that definitely wasn't an 'if' and that was that she'd fallen in love with her Military Commander.

--

Rodney had no idea what was going on. He was surrounded by a variety of different colours. The last thing he remembered properly was being shut in some empty storage locker by Teyla and that cave man. He knew he'd managed to get out of there by using his superior intellect; ignoring the fact that there was no way he could have gotten out, since the door was locked from the outside, without someone else's help.

He shrugged and carried on down the hallway, ignoring the splashes of colour, which, if he'd looked more closely, were actually splodges of paint from paintballs.

Opening the door nearest to him, he walked out onto a balcony with no real intent, only to almost trip over someone. Swearing, he turned around to see a shocked Elizabeth staring at him.

"Rodney?" She asked confused.

"Hey, Elizabeth…"

"Rodney, is there any reason why you're here?" Rodney seemed to ignore her for a moment before turning round and realising she was still there.

"Oh, yeah, d'you want to come to the rec room? Radek has booze." He spoke in a reserved manner, as if he didn't want to let her know that it was Radek who had managed to procure the alcohol.

Elizabeth shook her head. Her ability for rational thought may be lessoning but it was still strong enough. Rodney wouldn't take no for an answer, however, and a couple seconds later she found herself dragged from the balcony by an over eager scientist.

**Alright, there were the next three chapters. Did you like them? I'll update the last three chapters soon (If I get some reviews of course!!) **


	7. Chapter 7

**NotAllWhoWanderAreAimless thanks for your reviews, they make me smile. Thank you everyone else as well, I'm glad you are enjoying this fic!**

**Chapter Seven**

"Atlantis, this is Caldwell. Please respond. Atlantis, I repeat; please respond." Elizabeth woke with a groan, hand flailing out to search for her radio before realising it was still attached to her ear.

Sitting up, she forcefully stabbed at her radio and groaned again as pain shot through her ear.

"Hello?" Caldwell's voice was too loud and Elizabeth's head started to pound in agony.

"Weir, here," she ground out.

"Doctor Weir? Is everything all right? I've tried to contact Atlantis a number of times already."

Opening her eyes and rolling her neck painfully, Elizabeth moaned as she noticed that she wasn't in her quarters. She was actually in the rec room. A couple of other people were asleep, or unconscious, nearby. Blinking against the light, Elizabeth sat up; wincing as she observed the bottles of alcohol scattered across the floor. She rolled her eyes in irritation as she came to the conclusion that her headache was actually a hangover.

Since she hadn't responded, Caldwell spoke again, prompting Elizabeth to swear and raise a hand to her head.

"What?" She yelled.

"Doctor Weir, I'm beaming down. I'll be in the Control Room in a couple of minutes. Caldwell out." He sounded concerned, but Elizabeth didn't care since a curse from her left had distracted her.

--

Teyla was in the Control Room by herself. She and Ronon were taking it in turns to watch the 'Gate. Just because they couldn't dial out, didn't mean others couldn't dial in. She closed her eyes briefly, yawning in exhaustion, when a flash of white light appeared in the 'Gate room down below. Blinking, she smiled in relief as she took in the sight of Colonel Caldwell and a couple of soldiers.

"Colonel." She greeted him as she walked down the stairs.

"Teyla? What happened?" He asked in shock.

Teyla carefully lifted a hand to touch her forehead where a large, but thankfully not fatal, gash glittered with dried blood. She sighed softly as she remembered the nurse in the hall tripping her up, sending Teyla flying into a door; head on.

"A lot has happened, Colonel." She smiled and led him to Elizabeth's office to explain.

--

The first thing John did when he woke up was open his eyes. The second thing he did was swear loudly as his head suddenly exploded in pain. He groaned and felt someone shift slightly next to him.

Turning his head he saw Elizabeth. She was sat up and leant back on her hands with her head tilted backwards; eyes closed.

"Morning." He tried to say, but his throat was too dry and his greeting just made his throat sting.

Elizabeth turned to him and smiled in sympathy. John suddenly wondered where he was, and why he was waking up next to his boss. Half of him was relieved when he realised he was actually in the rec room; he pointedly ignored the other half that was disappointed.

"Hey." She said softly.

He watched as she picked up a discarded and empty alcohol bottle. She frowned and looked back at him.

"How much?" Elizabeth asked.

John shook his head, albeit slowly since that was all his hangover would allow unless he wished to cause himself more pain.

"I don't think we drank it all alone, though." He said, pointing to others who were now starting to wake.

"What the hell happened?" Rodney rasped as he sat up.

Lorne sat up next to the scientist as Radek coughed from the floor.

"Well someone had a party last night." Lorne joked, causing many pairs of eyes to turn and glare at him.

"How can you not have a hang over?" John asked as he tried to sit up with Elizabeth's help.

"I didn't drink as much as you." Lorne laughed and Rodney sighed, throwing himself back to the floor.

Giving up on sitting, John fell back to the floor also. But instead of actually hitting his intended target, his head landed in Elizabeth's lap. Neither of them seemed to care. In fact, Elizabeth's hand made its way to John's hair and lightly ran through it.

No one could be bothered to get up properly yet, in fact Rodney was already asleep again.

**Short Chapter I know. The next two are longer.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

"So you're telling me the whole of Atlantis, barring Ronon and yourself, is behaving like children?" The disbelief in the Colonel's voice was obvious.

"Yes."

Caldwell sighed. "I suppose we could beam this juice, if it is the cause, into a secure holding area on the Daedalus, but we still don't know how long it would take for its effects to wear off."

"Have you not got medical personal on the Daedalus?" Teyla asked.

"Yes. I'll ask them to come down and take a few blood samples and take a look at the juice." He stopped for a moment to watch a couple of people run across the 'Gate room. "Hopefully we'll have this figured out soon."

--

"I think at least one of us should attempt to get up." Lorne joked quietly, his hangover having worsened over the past three quarter hour.

Everyone groaned negatively.

"Urg." Rodney said as he woke up slowly. "What's the last thing everyone remembers?"

"Drinking," Radek answered.

"I…" John didn't answer as flashes of memory came back to him.

He looked towards Elizabeth, and by the pallor of her face, he guessed she was remembering too. He smiled weakly and colour flushed to her face as she blushed.

The more he tried to recall, the more John could remember the feel of his hands on Elizabeth as she lay underneath him. He didn't think they'd gotten past anything but kissing by the time they both passed out, but he couldn't be sure since the memory was broken in places.

Elizabeth looked at him, eyes wide.

"John?"

This time it was John that left. He got up quickly, muttering something and staggered undignified out of the rec room.

Elizabeth sighed and lay back on the floor, hands over her eyes. She didn't think either of them was ready for a relationship and this was testing the bounds of their friendship to the limit.

--

"Sir, Doctor Mayer has completed his analysis and the juice has been beamed so a secure storage locker."

"Thank you, Novak." Caldwell replied, getting up from his chair on the bridge of the Daedalus.

Entering the ship's infirmary, Caldwell immediately went over to the CMO and asked him to report.

"Well, Sir, it definitely has the properties Miss Emmagen told us about. It's a caffeinated substance which has proteins that could help to boost the immune system. And after looking deeper at the cell structure, it is possible that it could stop the Wraith from feeding. Unfortunately I run a couple of scans that aren't normally run to determine if a food or drink is safe." The doctor explained, talking about the Sparky juice.

"And?" Caldwell prompted.

"It affects the part of the brain that has to do with decision making…"

"Are you telling me the whole population of Atlantis is incapable of making a decision?" He interrupted.

"No, Colonel. What I'm saying is that the rational part of their brain, which normally lets them make the correct decisions, has been affected. So instead of picking the best choice, they do what they _want_ to do. Not what they _need_ to do."

"What I really want to know, Doctor, is if it can be reversed or cured."

"Now they no longer have access to the drink, the effects won't get worse and I think I'll be able to create something to counteract it. But I wholly recommend destroying it. The humans from our galaxy have a slightly different protein count that those from Pegasus which is why the drink affected the expedition so much."

Caldwell nodded, telling the Doctor to distribute the 'cure' as soon as it was ready, and gave the order to beam the Sparky juice into space.

**Okay so this one's also short! lol But at least I'm updating three chapters at a time so it isn't that bad. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Well here's the last chapter guys. Thanks for all your reviews and I hope you like the ending to this. **

**Chapter Nine**

Elizabeth looked up as Colonel Caldwell entered her office. She smiled pleasantly.

"I'd like to thank you again Steven."

"No need, Elizabeth. I was just doing my job."

"Thank you anyway."

He smiled. "Well, the supplies from the Daedalus are being beamed down to Atlantis as we speak. We'll soon be on our way back to Earth."

Elizabeth nodded and Caldwell left her office.

Elizabeth sighed and relaxed against the back of her chair. Looking out past the Control Room she could see John's shadow on the balcony. It took her a moment to realise that avoiding the situation wouldn't make anything better. At any rate, she wanted her best friend back.

Taking a deep breath, she walked into the Control Room and out onto the balcony. She winced as she saw John tense as she stepped through the balcony doors.

"John?"

"Elizabeth, don't." His voice was normal but Elizabeth could detect a hint of bitterness behind it.

"John, what have I done to deserve this treatment? Give me one good reason and I'll leave you alone." Her voice held a lot more confidence than she actually felt.

John's shoulders loosened slightly and Elizabeth walked over to him. She rested a hand on his arm and her mouth quirked slightly as he didn't flinch or pull away.

"What happened John…it, it wasn't…I…" She sighed and closed her eyes.

"Elizabeth, I'm sorry." John turned to face her. "I shouldn't have…"

Elizabeth cut him off forcefully. "John you couldn't control it any better than the rest of us. You know it was the juice so don't you dare blame yourself."

He smiled at her but it didn't reach his eyes. "I can't do this."

Elizabeth's forehead wrinkled in confusion and John explained.

"I mean us, Elizabeth. I care for you a lot." He broke off and laughed at himself. "No, that's not true; I know I've fallen in love with you."

He stopped momentarily as he heard Elizabeth's sharp intake of breath. Then he carried on speaking.

"But I'm no good at relationships. If they last long enough, I always do something to screw them up. And I screw them up badly. I don't want that to happen with you. I'd rather we stayed friends because if we become anything else, I know I'll lose you."

"John," Elizabeth spoke softly as her hands made their way to his chest. "I'm scared too, but of losing you to something else entirely. Every time you go through the Stargate…I love you and not being with you wouldn't make it easier if you never came back."

John raised a hand to Elizabeth's face and gently brushed his thumb over her cheek bone before pulling her towards him. Elizabeth couldn't hold back a sigh as John's mouth brushed lightly over her lips.

"I can't lose you." He breathed out.

"You won't." She promised.

He smiled and this time it did reach his eyes. Elizabeth grinned in return and slid her hands up to the back of his neck, one of them tangling itself into his hair. He pulled her closer to him and placed his other hand on her waist.

"I love you, Elizabeth." He whispered before capturing her mouth with his.

* * *

**So this is the end. Please review if you enjoyed this story (or even if you didn't enjoy it! lol) I'm really happy with the way it turned out. (I've never properly written a fic that's both angst and fluff at the same time before)**


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